Retail therapy

How things have changed! Seems like only yesterday that perhaps grudgingly I accompanied my mother to the local grocery store every Thursday for the week’s shopping.

She always had a list and the manager at the local Co-op would fetch and wrap everything from his shelves, item by item, and help pack them in mother’s shopping basket.

A far cry from our experience today where you help yourself from supermarket shelves and pay on the way out, or order your supplies from home on a computer  and have it delivered to your door, or pick it up yourself from special “click and collect” stations  at the store.

Only today I visited a kitchen shop anxious to see the latest gizmo, and discovered the first counter just inside the door was similarly devoted to customers ordering online and picking up at the shop.

Maybe I detested those weekly visits with mother to the local grocery shop — but then I was probably still in short trousers and at an age with little appreciation of the necessity for the weekly visit.

Shopping traditions have changed beyond comprehension, and although I am not adverse to seeking out what I want remotely on a computer, I still prefer to actually doing the selection and handing over cash  or its equivalent face to face in a shop.